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Jobseekers Allowance Advice needed
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Hi all.
I am looking for advice re Jobseekers Allowance. A bit of background....Last summer my daughter moved out and into Student lodgings at her University. She has a boyfriend who lives some 70 miles away in Derbyshire who is on Jobseeker's allowance, which means he has little money to travel such distance once he has paid his elderly mum his keep.
Understanding this problem and seeing the dire situation in his home life, we allowed him to come and stay with us in our home, so he can have the opportunity to meet our daughter at the weekend, and also receive moral support and encouragement while doing his courses. They do not live together and we do not allow them to share rooms. He uses her room as a base and now has a 2 College in course to improve his english and maths to help him improve his chances of a getting a job. Hes a quiet type of lad with mild ASD, he has never had the chance or support to gain confidence to go to College, but now is doing so well he is the top set.Since hes been staying with us, he is a different person. He sadly comes from a violent home background that is in one word dysfunctional!
We have offered support and encouragement in the time he has been with us and we have only just began to accept a small payment towards the weekly food bill.
Anyway he has been sent a form to be completed by himself, about where he is living and why he left Derbyshire to come and live in our area. He has mentioned to his advisor he has a girlfriend, so they do know. He told them he is staying with us as she is away, he gained a place at College and is looking to do well and carry on into a futher course to get off the Jobseekers, they have now asked for the complete details of the owner of the household he is living in. Page after page of personal information. My husband does not wish to provide the information such as his employment/financial details as he cannot see what this young lads Jobseekers allowance has to do with us.
He does not ask for Rent money or any other help towards our home. He contributes only a small amount when we go food shopping.
We also have a son with ASD, so we understand how it is necessary to provide any info related to a claim for his Jobseekers in the past {he is working part time now so no longer receives any allowance} we did not mind sharing info as he is our son.
Can anyone explain why this info is requested? And what will happen if we don't provide it?
I think it would just be easier to send the boyfriend back home, but then he will loose any chance of any future when he looses his college courses.
Any help gratefully received.
Many Thanks in advance.
I am looking for advice re Jobseekers Allowance. A bit of background....Last summer my daughter moved out and into Student lodgings at her University. She has a boyfriend who lives some 70 miles away in Derbyshire who is on Jobseeker's allowance, which means he has little money to travel such distance once he has paid his elderly mum his keep.
Understanding this problem and seeing the dire situation in his home life, we allowed him to come and stay with us in our home, so he can have the opportunity to meet our daughter at the weekend, and also receive moral support and encouragement while doing his courses. They do not live together and we do not allow them to share rooms. He uses her room as a base and now has a 2 College in course to improve his english and maths to help him improve his chances of a getting a job. Hes a quiet type of lad with mild ASD, he has never had the chance or support to gain confidence to go to College, but now is doing so well he is the top set.Since hes been staying with us, he is a different person. He sadly comes from a violent home background that is in one word dysfunctional!
We have offered support and encouragement in the time he has been with us and we have only just began to accept a small payment towards the weekly food bill.
Anyway he has been sent a form to be completed by himself, about where he is living and why he left Derbyshire to come and live in our area. He has mentioned to his advisor he has a girlfriend, so they do know. He told them he is staying with us as she is away, he gained a place at College and is looking to do well and carry on into a futher course to get off the Jobseekers, they have now asked for the complete details of the owner of the household he is living in. Page after page of personal information. My husband does not wish to provide the information such as his employment/financial details as he cannot see what this young lads Jobseekers allowance has to do with us.
He does not ask for Rent money or any other help towards our home. He contributes only a small amount when we go food shopping.
We also have a son with ASD, so we understand how it is necessary to provide any info related to a claim for his Jobseekers in the past {he is working part time now so no longer receives any allowance} we did not mind sharing info as he is our son.
Can anyone explain why this info is requested? And what will happen if we don't provide it?
I think it would just be easier to send the boyfriend back home, but then he will loose any chance of any future when he looses his college courses.
Any help gratefully received.
Many Thanks in advance.
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and it goes the other way too, if he receives any benefit that he ISN'T entitled too, then that too would be taken into account!
simple information required
In effect, the lad is your lodger, so I also can't see why they'd need your info. If he was claiming housing benefit, they'd need your contact info and rent amount, but that's all I think (it isn't much more invasive than that). However, if he's described you to them as "girlfriend's parents" it might be why they want it - it's a family link, in a way.
But having said that, when my son went onto JSA a few years ago I wasn't asked for my income details at all, yet he lived at home with me, his natural mother. He hadn't paid any NI contributions, so it can't be because of contributions-based JSA (the one you're entitled to for six months if you've paid NI).
Unfortunately, all this is the limit of my knowledge about it. Contact CAB asap (before the Job Centre sanctions the lad for failing to supply info) to get proper advice.
In your dealings with the Job Centre, it might be wise to lessen your relationship with him, ie reduce it to lodger and landlord status. He pays his way out of his benefits, and I think that should be all they need to know (if they even need to know that). In your shoes, I might even be calling them up and asking "Why does a lodger have to supply his landlord/landlady's income details?"
Best of luck.
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/pdf/Turn2us%20eflyer.pdf
maybe able to give you some advice they know just about everything to do with benefits and are a wonderful service and lovely people.
My advice is for him to speak to the job centre asap, and get the issue sorted or benefits etc may be changed or stopped etc.
Is he his elderly mums carer? as there is carers allowance he can get.. but then i do not know the circumstances... i recommend chatting to turn2us I refer a lot of my clients to them
Except that isn't the case.
Unless I've misunderstood he isn't a 'lodger' by any technical or legal definition. He's living in his girlfriends parents house rent-free without any sort of contract or formal agreement. That's not 'lodging' for the purposes of this.
Income-related JSA claims are based on the whole household, not the person.
He's probably not even entitled to JSA given the current situation. They look at the income of the whole household.
Your advice further on is probably the best; this relationship needs formalising. He can then legitimately claim housing benefit for his own, locked room with the OP just being on the forms as the landlord. He'll of course also get JSA then as his household will be solely his bedroom.
If the daughter is living with him in the bedroom though that would affect things.
Benefits are designed as a safety net for those with nothing.. it's just not designed for cases like this where the lucky chap is getting board and lodgings free, just needing some cash for 'spending money'.
I spent all this evening trawling the internet trying to see what others have encountered and not yet seen a case where this information was requested when he is just staying here but can appreciate the boyfriend/girlfriend scenario, but not all in relationships are living together, I know these two definitely are not.
I will try the two sites mentioned and continue to listen out for any advice on here. Thank you so much.
He did used to claim an allowance for caring for his mother, who has mobility issue, that was stopped some years ago when she was thought fit for work.
As far as I know he only gets a Job seekers allowance, he has been diagnosed with ASD, but the mother did not presue or take up the offer of a special needs Statement, hence his poor educational background and home life. So received no allowances for that condition.
Hes such a nice quiet lad, but lost with how the system works, we don't know either to explain...he just wants to get some exams, get off benefits and have a chance to work.
Thank you all again
I think you're missing the point. Look at it from the DWP/DSS (and taxpayer) point of view..
I don't know what your family/household income is, but for arguments sake I'll assume you and your husband are both earning a normal/comfortable amount - 25k each lets say, giving a total yearly household income of 50k.
Because income-based JSA is given to people with a household income of basically £0, they'd take one look at his situation and say he isn't entitled as he's living in a house where £50k P.A is being earned.
It's your house and you've taken him in, you're expected to pay for him.
It'd be the same thing if I moved back in with my wealthy parents and I tried to claim benefits - I'd get nothing because of their high income.
As has been mentioned though, if you're clever about it you could change the nature of the arrangement between you both; formally charge him rent, and he could get that in housing benefit. You could make quite nicely on this :cool::D
For him to be your lodger though I believe the room you provide must have a lock, he'd need his own TV Licence though etc. There's a little hassle involved.
My household has only one main wage earner to pay everything from the mortgage to the food bill, my disabled son works 16 hours so does not claim any benefits, my daughter has had her working weekends cut down to just 4 hours over two days.
I myself was made redundant some years ago and because I received a carers allowance for my son before I took a number of part time jobs on, I was put back on that carers allowance which is less that JS and means I pay all my own Dental, Prescriptions and Opticians bills. We just about make ends meet ourselves.
This young lad contributes to the food bill to try to help out. The rest of his money pays for fares to college three mornings a week and a small pay and go phone card to ring his mum and dad who are both in their 70's.
I can appreciate it may seem like hes having the life of riley, but he is not. He is very honest and does not want to get into trouble writing these forms, like everyone else out there who has no job and completing 25 applications for work each week, he is entitled to have some money to live on until he can work to support himself and then pay back society for all the support they gave to him when he had nothing.
I have paid tax and NI all my working life and never claimed anything. My two youngsters took work on with weekend jobs while they were at Uni to help pay their way after I lost my job.
Im not after anything for myself here, this young lad has autistic Spectrum Disorder and is lost with all of this, I cannot answer his questions, so I asked out on here.
Thanks for all your advice.
I think you're missing my point. I'm not trying to be unkind, judgmental or difficult, merely explaining how these claims are evaluated and how it'll look to the Jobcentre.
If he fills out the form honestly and you include your household financial details but carefully explain that he has no access to any of those funds they may be able to give him JSA. Don't count on it though, I'm not sure how much discretion they can apply in such situations.
Regardless of the JSA thing though I would advise you to get him to claim Disability Living Allowance (well, it'll probably be PIP now). DLA/PIP is not based on household income so there wont be any issues with him receiving that, wherever he lives. If he has an ASD and can provide medical evidence to back this up he's probably quite likely to get at least the low rate, if not the higher rate.
I doesn't matter if they both earn a million pounds each, they would not be expected to keep him, if fact he could probably claim housing benefit for renting a room if they decided to charge him money for living there on top of his benefit
Try telling that to the DWP!
As I said in the previous post, I think they have discretion, but I'm pretty sure they aren't obliged to give somebody income-related JSA if the claimant is living in a household with other earners.
The way round this would be if this chap can be classed as being in his own household; however you'd do that.
where did you get the age from? if his parents are in their 70`s i think it`s highly unlikely that the lad`s 16.
edit.... Actually i think these were housing benefit forms on further reflection. Sorry
edit (again) go in to the jobcentre and explain the situation. They may say those parts of the form are not needed once you have explained. It's worth a try!
Yes, he could
You are not required to give details of your income to DwP because you are not in a 'relationship' with him. They may consider that he is in a relationship with your daughter and as such they are a 'household' within the home and therefore would look at their income together that is a potential problem. He needs to go to the CAB to get help to fill out the forms.
For all the people thinking that its about entire household income, how do you think over 18 year olds claim JSA when they are out of work living with their parents??!! They will judge 'his' specific household which might be seen as him and his girlfriend.
This is correct
Good luck to him, hope he gets the help he needs on all fronts, it sound like you are a great help to him
You may be able to see if adult services could provide support, you would need to make an application to the vulnerable adults team in your area (or its equivilent). They differ from the learning disabled adult team but may be combined into one (all areas are different). If he meets the rather strict and stringent criteria for support he may be allocated a worker who could support him with things like this, also work, housing advice, social support advice and direct him into the services of specific ASD supports.